Irene Morales

Irene Morales Infante (1 April 1865-25 August 1890) was a sergeant of the Chilean Army during the War of the Pacific. Widowed twice by the age of 13, she attempted to serve in the army as a man, but she failed to pass herself as one and was instead a nurse. However, she proved herself at the Battle of Tacna in 1880.

Biography
Irene Morales Infante was born on 1 April 1865 in Santiago, Chile in the barrio of La Chimba on the Mapocho River. She was taught to be a seamstress, but she was married at the age of 11 to an older man in 1877. Left without a family, she traveled to Bolivia in Antofagasta and she married Santiago Pizarro, a Chilean drummer in the Bolivian Army, but he was executed for killing a Bolivian soldier in a drunken brawl in 1878. A year later, Chilean forces entered the city during the War of the Pacific and she slipped into the Chilean Army while disguised as a man. She was eventually found out and worked as a nurse, and at the Battle of Pisagua and the Battle of San Francisco she assisted in treating to the Chilean wounded and also showed her skills with a rifle. At the 1880 battle of Tacna, she cried "viva Chile!" to her fellow soldiers to inspire them, and fought with them until 1881, when she returned to a civilian life. She died at the age of 25 in Santiago, having worked with ill prisoners before.